I Raced, and Maybe I Shouldn't Have

On September 13, I ran the Via Half Marathon right here in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley as a tuneup for Marine Corps.

“Tuneup” might be the wrong word, though. According to Runner's World, a tuneup that's longer than a 5K or 10K shouldn't be raced all-out because then you need to spend time tapering and recovering and otherwise interrupting your regularly scheduled training.

And yeah, all that stuff happened because I ran the half hard. I used “I'm racing next weekend” as an excuse to run not-very-long on Labor Day. (Instead, I went tubing down the Lehigh River on a perfect sunny day with a beer in my hand, so no regrets.) I skipped my strength classes last week because my hamstrings were crazy sore postrace and we usually do a decent number of hammie-taxing moves. And my “recovery” long run this past weekend was only 10 miles. (Through Kansas City, pictured above, where I was visiting for a wedding. I learned that not all of the Midwest is flat!) Luckily, I'm kind of making up my training plan as I go—don't try this at home!—so there was no “regularly scheduled training” for this race to interrupt.

I wanted to use the half to see about where my fitness is right now. I had a pretty lazy spring because I was burnt out and planning my wedding and doing other things, and I wanted to know how much long-distance speed I'd lost.

Turns out, not much. I was hoping to go sub-1:40 and I did it—a 1:39:40. (All without wearing a watch, but that's a different story.) Granted, that's three minutes slower than my PR, but it's the first time I've broken 1:40 without having a half-marathon-specific buildup beforehand. I've been doing marathon-length long runs, weekly speedwork, and very little running at half-marathon pace. I'll certainly take it.

And now, it's back to the grind. I'm doing a 20-miler this weekend, the Chicago Marathon on October 11—a marathon two weeks before another? don't try that at home either!—and that'll hopefully get me prepared to have a fun race at Marine Corps.

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Meghan is training in preparation for the 2015 Marine Corps Marathon with the Runner's World Challenge (soon to be Runner's World VIP). To learn how you can be part of the RW VIP program, visit runnersworld.com/vip.

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